Volume 4 · Chapter 7
Taking a Chance
Brandi Hungerford, Rob Lemke
Victim: Rick Chance
Case at a glance
- When
- August 2002
- Where
- Tempe, Arizona
- Perpetrator
- Rob Lemke and Brandi Hungerford
- Victim
- Rick Chance
- Outcome
- Lemke sentenced to life in prison; Hungerford cooperated and received a shorter sentence
The case
Rick Chance built Empire Glass into a well-known Phoenix business, helped along by windshield-repair commercials that ran constantly on local television. He was also known for something riskier: he often carried a briefcase holding more than a million dollars’ worth of jewelry.
In August 2002, an exotic dancer named Brandi Hungerford invited him to room 317 of a Best Western in Tempe, Arizona. Her boyfriend, Rob Lemke, was waiting. Wearing a ski mask, Lemke ambushed Chance and shot him once in the throat. Chance was found the next afternoon. The briefcase was gone.
Hungerford and Lemke left Arizona and headed for Washington State, but the investigation moved fast, and both were arrested within a week. Hungerford agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Lemke was sentenced to life in prison, while Hungerford received a far shorter term. For people in Phoenix who had seen Chance on television for years, the idea that he had died for a case of jewelry in a chain hotel room was hard to take in.
Read the full story
This case is told in full in True Crime Case Histories, Volume 4 by Jason Neal.
Get Volume 4 on AmazonCase photographs
2 photos
Where it happened
Why this case
“I was drawn to this one by the gap between the public man and the private risk. Everyone in Phoenix knew Rick Chance’s face, and apparently plenty of people knew about the briefcase too. It only took two of them to decide it was worth killing for.”
— Jason Neal, author of True Crime Case Histories
